Speech of Shri Mallikarjun Kharge introducing the Railway Budget 2014-15 12th February, 2014 1. Madam Speaker, I rise to present before this august House the Revised Estimates for 2013-14 and the Estimated Receipts and Expenditure for 2014-15. ȡǑ ¡Ǘȱ \ȯ ȫ Ʌ ȡͧ ȡǕ ȡ¡@ ͧȡ ¡Ǘȱ ͩ "Ǘ ȧ ] ¡ȣ Ȳ Ǖ ȯ"@@ 2. The Estimates for 2014-15 are for the whole year, but, at present I seek from the august House a ‘vote-on-account’, sufficient to cover the estimated expenditure for the first four months of the fiscal. The Hon’ble Members are aware that requirements for the remaining part of the year would be voted later, separately. 3. This is my maiden Budget under the inspiring guidance of the Hon’ble Prime Minister and Chairperson UPA, to whom I am grateful for the responsibility entrusted to me. I also wish to profusely thank the Finance Minister for his continued support and encouragement to the Railways, underlined further by his recent gesture of providing additional budgetary support for meeting pressing requirements of a few national projects during the current fiscal. 4. Madam Speaker, the name of Indian Railways evokes fond childhood memories amongst all of us who have grown with this beautiful system. Railways influence all aspects of our lives and untiringly carry people and materials to every nook and corner of the country. Its role in national integration by providing low cost connectivity from Kashmir to Kanyakumari on one hand and Arunachal, Mizoram and Tripura to Gujarat on the other, is unparalleled. 5. As an organization, Railwaymen take pride in serving the nation, braving snow, torrential rains, floods and desert storms on the one hand and misdirected public or terrorist wrath on the other. Madam, I have hardly spent eight months with Railways but I confess that I have an inner feeling of a lifelong association. It is my firm view that this pan Indian organization needs careful nurturing to help it better serve the people and play its role in building the nation. 6. During my short stewardship of the Indian Railways, I have been flooded with requests for new projects of New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling and 1 new Factories, new trains, and suggestions for improving the services of the system. While Railways continue to deliver services ungrudgingly in spite of constraints of resources, both physical and financial, it is high time that we take a serious note of its urgent investment and other needs. Railways are a strong engine of development and help mainstreaming our citizens in less developed areas of the country. Therefore, it is critical for the Railways itself to be restored to a more central place in the national planning. 7. As the UPA II Government completes its five years journey in May this year, it is time to take stock of Indian Railways’ achievements and also lay the road map for the organization. I would like to share some of the key recent initiatives, which have led to build up of confidence of our countrymen and instilled a sense of pride amongst a committed railway workforce of about 14 lakh persons: i. National Project of Kashmir witnessed a major landmark last June, when 11.2 km long tunnel linking Banihal with Qazigund in the valley became operational. The tunnel, which is an engineering marvel, has reduced the distance from 35 km to 17.5 km., provides an all-season means of transport for the local population and is proving a boon for the inhabitants. Also, construction on Udhampur – Katra section, which will enable lakhs of pilgrims from all over the country to reach foothills to Vaishno Devi shrine directly, has been completed and trial runs have started. We expect to run passenger services up to Katra very shortly; ii. During the XI Plan period, the targets for newlines, doubling and electrification were exceeded. Railways completed 2,207 km of newlines against target of 2,000 km, doubling of 2,758 km against 2,500 km and electrification of 4,556 km against a target of 4,500 km. During the 12th Five Year Plan period, Indian Railways infrastructure will further expand to reach the hinterland and frontiers of our nation; iii. Similarly, rolling stock acquisition also surpassed the targets and 64,875 wagons were acquired against target of 62,000, a total of 1,288 diesel locos were produced against 1,019, and 1,218 electric locos against a target of 1,205; iv. Initiatives taken for construction of two dedicated freight corridors on the eastern and western routes would lead to strategically critical capacity augmentation, and would involve construction of dedicated freight lines to 2 carry predominantly coal and steel on the Eastern Corridor and containers on the Western Corridor. Dedicated Freight Corridor is an innovation in rail transport in India and will reduce the transit time to about half of the present levels. The capacity released by freight trains could then be used for running more passenger trains at higher speed in a need based manner. This initiative would also offer significant reduction of Green House Gas emissions in transport sector of India; v. Railways successfully met the heavy impact of 6th Pay Commission in full during the period. Total additional payout including arrears from 1st January 2006 has been more than Rs one lakh crore till now. Significantly, unlike other segments of the Government, Railways met the additional expenditure within its own means, from its own earnings. The huge requirement did cause some hardships, but the organisation successfully overcame them and emerged stronger. Significantly, but for the additional financial burden caused by the Pay Commission, the resource position of Railways would have been correspondingly that much healthier; vi. Extension of rail connectivity to the northeastern states has been a focus area of our government to bring prosperity to these areas and also strengthen the national integration. I am happy to inform the august House that as a result of additional financial support provided to Railways at the instance of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, we are now on course to convert the strategically important 510 Km long Rangiya - Murkongselek Metre Gauge line into Broad Gauge within this financial year. vii. The Capital of Arunanchal Pradesh would soon be on rail map in this financial year, as Harmuti-Naharlagun newline is expected to be commissioned shortly. The state of Meghalaya is also all set to come on the Railway map in this financial year, as Dudhnoi – Mehendipathar newline is getting completed by March 2014; viii. Expansion of Railway Network: During the year we completed 1,532 km of New Line, Doubling and Gauge Conversion against a revised target of 1,525 km. Sections commissioned in 2013-14 include: New Lines a. Karur – Salem (85 Km) b. Koderma – Nawadih (34 Km) 3 c. Lalitpur – Tikamgarh (51.5 Km) d. New Morinda to Sanewal (54 Km) thereby complete commissioning of Chandigarh – Ludhiana e. Qazigund – Banihal (19 Km) f. Kadur – Chikmaglur (46 Km) Gauge Conversion: a. Hanumangarh – Sriganganagar (64Km) b. Manamadurai – Virudunagar (67 Km) c. Darum Madhepura – Murliganj (22 Km) d. Kolar – Chickballapur (85 Km) e. Rangiya – Rangapara North – Dekargaon (145 Km) Doubling: a. Panskura – Shyamchak (27 km) 3rd Line b. Muri – Tulin (1.5 km) Doubling 2nd Bridge over River Subernarekha c. Jirat – Ambika Kalna (20.23 km) d. Magrahat – Diamond Harbour (15 km) e. Kursela-Karagola (17 km) f. Katereah-Kosi cabin (4km) g. Madur – Mandya (19 km) h. Birur – Ajjampur (18km) ix. Three new factories viz. Rail Wheel Plant in district Chhapra, Rail Coach Factory at Rae Bareli and Diesel Component Factory at Dankuni have become functional and commenced production; x. Specially designed coaches for adverse weather conditions have been inducted for rail travel in Kashmir Valley. Also corrosion resistant and lighter wagons with capability to carry extra pay-load and higher speed potential up to 100 kmph have been developed; and xi. Railways have been promoting sports since 1928. In the year 2012-13, we recruited about 500 sports persons. I take pride in stating that Railways’ sportspersons have a dominating presence in the national teams in various disciplines and won titles in 23 disciplines and were runners up in 9 disciplines in various national events. Our sportspersons have also represented the country in various International Championships and won a total of 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze Medals. 8. Madam, Indian Railways had formulated Policy Unigauge in the year 1992 to convert selected Metre/Narrow Gauge routes to Broad Gauge to avoid 4 transhipment, improve rolling stock utilisation, achieve higher throughput and to foster development in various parts of the country. I am happy to report that a total of 19,214 km of non-Broad Gauge lines have been converted to Broad Gauge. People in several States including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Tamil Nadu have been the major beneficiaries. Safety 9. Madam, this august House has in the past expressed deep concern over some unfortunate accidents and I painfully acknowledge my anguish and grief at the loss of lives. However, I must assure the House that safety is never compromised on the system and several measures have been and are being taken for its further strengthening. Some of these are :- i. Manning or elimination of all unmanned level crossings and provision of ROBs/RUBs in lieu of manned level crossings with heavy traffic density in a time bound manner is a commitment of Railways. Towards this end, a total of 5,400 unmanned level crossings were eliminated – 2,310 by manning and 3,090 by closure / merger / construction of ROBs/RUBs during the last five years; ii.